I Don’t Care If You’re Green — You Can’t Clean Dishes

 Becoming Green had a similar problem with these dishwashing soaps. Image: becoming green

The following story is about how my dishwasher almost drove me to the edge of insanity when it stopped cleaning my dishes.

A few months ago we caught a deal at Walmart on Palmolive Eco Gel Dishwashing Detergent and bought two big bottles.  I generally don’t buy the “eco” or “green” detergents.  Not because I don’t care about the environment, but because, as you have read in this blog, I am cheap.  If it wasn’t for Walmart’s 2 for 1 deal I probably would have bought the cheapest generic box on the shelf.  And I should have!

A few weeks after using the soap I started noticing a white build up on all of my dishes.  I cleaned the trap for the dishwasher, ran the dishwasher empty and even tried a citrus dishwasher cleaner.  None of it worked.  Frustrated, I went online and found out that you can put white vinegar in the rinse aid dispenser and use baking soda as detergent.  After a few washes this seemed to help a little but I was using about a 1/2 cup of baking soda per load.  That is a bit much when the stuff comes in a miniature box.

Finally, after a lot of my complaining, Mr. Juicefairy and I decided to just replace the dishwasher, assuming something was wrong with it.  Now before I get chastised for making such an expensive decision, the dishwasher was one of the appliances that was ready to replaced when we redid our kitchen.  It was old looking and the granite installer never really properly replaced the dishwasher so the door has gotten cracked.  I figured that the dishwasher had just outlived its use since it was so old.

I assumed that the problem was solved as soon as the dishwasher was replaced.  I had to scrub all of the pots, pans and dishes with Brillo pads to get the scum off (a task I am still working on because even Brillo was having a hard time getting this soap off).  The problem was better with the new dishwasher but I could still feel soap on the outside of my glasses and dishes.

I finally realized that I had switched to the new soap when this problem started and went to Publix and bought some name brand Cascade.  Instantly the problem was gone.  My dishes are clean again. I am still working on getting some of the leftover soap under the lips of my pots and around handles which is a tedious task but overall the dishes come out sparkling.

So that was a lot of aggravation just because of a dish soap.  Heed my warning readers: don’t buy Palmolive Eco Gel dishwashing soap!  I complained to my sister about this recently and she claimed to have the same issue with the Seventh Generation dishwashing soap.  No more eco friendly dishwashing soaps for me.  I will save myself a few cents and some hassle by sticking to good old Cascade.